Bendery... In Transdniestrian region a city or an inhabited locality could hardly be found which history rooted in deep antiquity would interweave so quaintly with it's present and future. The convenient geographical position, soft climat had long before attracted people. Here at crossroads of trade ways interests of states and peoples met time and again. During centuries on the territory of the region one tribes were replaced by the others, different languages were head: Goths, Guuns, Slava, Tartars, Turks.
The evidence of their presence is in the ancient names of towns: Tungaty, Tyaganakyach, Tigina, Bendery. The strength and power of the Bendery fortress attracted the Swedish king Karl XII; the Ukrainian Hetman Ivan Mazepa died at its walls; here Russian soldiers fought and lost their lives during Russian-Turkish wars of the second half of the 18"1 century.

The history of the town is connected with the names of such famous people as the great Russian poet A.S. Pushkin, Field-Marshal M.I.Kutuzov, the prince G.Potyomkin-Tavricheskii, the count M.Panin, the playwright I.Kotlyarevskii, the leader of the peasant revolt Yemelyan Pugachyov, the founder of the Ukrainian opera M.Zankovetskaya. Bendery is the Motherland of Academician L.S.Berd, K.K.Gedroits, the founder of the theory of colloid chemistry of soils, Ye.K_Fyodorov, the participants of the expedition "North Pole-1" and the Hero of the Soviet Union. SAShestakov, the Honoured pilot of the USSR and the participant of the flight Moscow - New-York in 1929, and S.I.Poletskii, the Hero of the Soviet Union, were born in Bendery. Nowadays Bendery is the large cultural and industrial centre of Pridnestrovye.

Being situated in the picturesque place on the bend of the middle flow of the river Dniester and having favourable natural conditions, historical places of interest the town of Bendery is very attractive for tourists.

The first information about a settlement situated on the site of Bendery dates back to the Illrd century b.C. The terrirory of the region had been in the epicenter of all historical events taking place in Europe since the Stone Age. Several hundred thousand years ago primeval people appeared in the region and they were occupied with hunting and collecting. They were replaced by flourishing civilizations of the Middle Ades. According to archaeological researches ghettish tribes had been first settlers on the territory of the town. Their traces were discovered in Bendery fortress area and adjacent villages of Kitskany and Varnutsa. The tribes had been engaged in farming, cattle-breeding, trading with Greeks and Romans.
In the IIFd-IVth centuries tribes who made up Chernyakhovskaya culture lived between the Dniester and Proute rivers. Those were Thracians, Scythians, Goths, Sarmations and others. Vestiges of that culture have been found on the territory of Bendery and neighbouring villages. The Chernyakhovskaya culture was greatly influenced by late Roman antique culture.

The river Dniester on the right bank of which the town of Bender^' is situated.The Dniester's source is in the Carpathians and it flows into the Black Sea. The length of the river is 1362 km. From ancient times the trading convoy from Lvov and Galich to Kaffa and Karfagen went on the Dniester.

Archaeological excavations made in the neighbourhood of Bendery:
- Bronze axes. Bronze epoch. The end of the III rd - the beginning of the IIhd millennium bC.
- Dagger. Bronze epoch. The middle of the IIhd - the beginning of the Ist millennium b.c. Kalfa.

In the late 5th - early 6th centuries Slavonic tribes with their own culture came to this land. In consecutive centuries nomadic tribes of Turks dwelt in the area between the Dniester and Proute rivers. In the middle of the 13th century Mongol-Tartars intruded in the land and ruled here until 1345. In the first half of the 14th century powerful Hungary made Mongol-Tartars leave this region. In 1359 as the result of rebellion of local population against Hungarian sway, self-ruled Moldavian Principality headed by Bogdan, a vassal of the Hungarian king, came into being.
By the beginning of the 15th century all lands from the Carpathians to the Black Sea made up the Moldavian Principality with the river Dniester being its eastern border. Our town was a customs post. It was mentioned as Tyagyanyakyach in a deed by Moldavian Ruler Alexander Dobry to Lvov merchants to permit trade in towns along the Dniester dated October 8, 1408. Since the second half of the 15th century the town was known as Tigina.
The Moldavian state became the most prosperous during the government of Stephan III the Great when diplomatic, economic and cultural relations were established between neighbouring states.

The fragment of Moldavian Ruler Alexander Dobiys deed in which our town was mentioned for the first time as Tyagyanyakyach.

Slavonic battle iron axes of the Xth century found in the excavations of Kalfinsky goroditsche (rus.-an ancient settlement) in the neighbourhood of Bendery.

All state documents and religious books were written in Old Church Slavonics language in Moldavia. In 1641 the first printed book "Kazania" was published in Moldavian.
In the picture: a copy of the title-page of this book.

In the late 14th-early 15th centuries sultan Turkey firmed its might. It was at that time that the process of subjugatin of Moldavian Principality by Osmanli Turks started. In 1538 after a number of fierce battles in Budzhak steppes Turks captured Tigina and 18 neighbouring villages. Advantageous strategic location on amounted bank of the Dniester near its confluence with the Black Sea made the town one of the Turkish strongholds in the fight against Russia. At the place of a former customs at the ford a fortress began to be constructed by a Abdul Minan. The town and the fortress were renamed Bendery (Persian-harbour, port).

The sight to the Bendery fortress from the left bank of the Dniester.

The model of the Bendery fortress. The citadel has the form of rectangle with 8 towers under which the basement was situated. The towers are connected by a high and powerful fortress wall.

The fortress was built as model of West European fortress of bastion type. It was enclosed with a high mound and a deep moat which had been never filled with water. The fortress comprised a citadel, upper and lower parts. There was a trading quarter on the south-western side of the fortress.
By the middle of the 16th century Moldavia was completely conquered by Turkey. However, the Moldavian continued fighting against Turkish conquerors. In winter, 1540 the Moldavian besieged the Bendery fortress under the leadership of Ruler.
AKornya but failed to seize it. In 1574 troops of Ruler Vode-Lyutii together with Cossacks of Hetman Sverchevskii beleaguered the fortress and captured the trading quarter but coudn't get inside. 20 years later Cossacks of Zaporozhye headed by Hetmans Loboda and Nalivaiko tried to capture the fortress, the trading centre was burnt to the ground, but they couldn't capture the fortress.

The sight of the moat surrounding the fortress. The walls of the moat are laid with local stone- kotelets. The mound and the wall of 7 metres wide rise over the moat.

Only in the result of victorious Russian-Turkish wars in the 18th - 19th centuries the Bendery fortress was conquered by Russian troops thrice. On September 15, 1770, after the two-month siege the fortress was attacked by the Russian army under the command of General Panin.

The regiment of Don Cossacks took part in that siege. Among the Cossacks there was Yemelyan Pugachyov, the coming leader of the peasant revolt. The fortress was captured after a difficult hand-to-hand bloody fighting.

The high price was paid for its capture: during its siege and storm Russian troops lost over 6000 killed or wounded soldiers and Turks - over 5000."Then so many to loose and so little to get, it would have been better not capture Bendery", - such was Catherine the Second's reaction to this event. The Russian-Turkish war of 1768-1774 was over by the Kyuchuk-Kainardzskii peace agreement according to which the Bendery fortress and all Moldavia were handed over to Turkey again.

On November 4, 1789, following the brilliant victory of Russian troops under the command of Suvorov by the Rymnik river the fortress capitulated for the second time. The fortress yielded to Russian troops headed by prince G.A.Potyomkin- Tavricheskii without any resistance. This victory became possible due to skilled action of the commander of cavalry M.I.Kutuzov, whose cavalry- defeated a three-thousand army of Budzhak Tartars approaching Bendery. Turks presented the keys for the fortress to Potyomkin-Tavricheskii, whose tent was situated on Borisovskii hill to the north-west of the fortress.

The sight of the bastions of the Bendery fortress. In the upper part of the fortress 10 bastions were built by Turks. Just from them the Turks shot during the defence.

In 1791 Transdniesrian regions on the left bank passed to Russia under the Yasi peace agreement. Moldavian lands situated on the right bank including the Bendery fortress remained in the possession of Turkey again. Russia got the exit on the river Dniester to the Black Sea. The final liberation of Bendery took place in November, 1806 in the result of the Russian-Turkish war of 1806-1812. The fortress surrended to Russian troops headed by General Meyendorf without strong resis tance.

According to the Bucharest peace agreement signed by M.I.Kutuzov on May 16, 1812, the territory which lay between the Prout and Dniester rivers came into possession of Russia. Later those lands were called Bessarabia.

The arms of Russian- Turkish wars: a mortir; and flint pistol of the 18th centurv.

As Bessarabian gubernia (Rus.-province) was founded, in accordance with the Decision of April 29, 1818, Bendery was declared a chief town of uyezd (Rus.-an administrative unit smaller than gubernia).The town was built by a particular scheme: at the distance of 500 metres to the south of the Bendery fortress eight wide streets parallel to the Dniester were laid and eight streets perpendicularly. At first Bendery was mainly in habited by the militaries and the by serf refugees. In 1818 there were 5,1 thousand people in Bendery.

In 1826 the coat of arms of Bendery was established. On it a two-headed eagle and a lying lion, symbolizing the Swedish King Karl XII who fled to the Bendery fortress in 1709 after the defeat in Poltava battle, are represented. A.S.Pushkin wrote about these events in his poem "Poltava" having been in Bendery on the site of the Swedish camp.

Since the second half of the 19th century the 55th Infantry Podol regiment have been in the Bendery- fortress. In 1912 by means of soldiers and officers of the regiment a monument was errected in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the victory of the Russian Army in the 1812 Patriotic War.